


Let's Sing Our Verses Loud

by tieria



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Baseball, Boarding School, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 18:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20314213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tieria/pseuds/tieria
Summary: “Baseball,” Shoichi said, and everyone’s heads turned towards him. For a moment, no one knew what to say over the lunchroom chatter, then-“What?”“Yeah,” Shoichi said with that certain laidback energy that would inevitably end up pulling the rest of them along with him, “Baseball. That’s what we’re going to do with our last year all together.”In their last year all in school together, Shoichi decides to form a baseball team. The only problem? They’re short a half-dozen members- and it falls to Yusaku and Jin to find the rest.





	Let's Sing Our Verses Loud

**Author's Note:**

> For YGO Big Bang 2019, a little busters au!! (But only the common route fun stuff, no heartbreak here lol.) Many, many, many thanks to the amazing @mishabear/elysiaree for such a fantastic [illustration](https://elysiaree.tumblr.com/post/187123297795/here-is-my-contribution-to-the-ygobb-this-year-it) of one of my favorite scenes, and everyone who organized and participated in my favorite fandom event. <3

“Baseball,” Shoichi said, and everyone’s heads turned towards him. For a moment, no one knew what to say over the lunchroom chatter, then-

“What?”

“Yeah,” Shoichi said with that certain laidback energy that would inevitably end up pulling the rest of them along with him, “Baseball. That’s what we’re going to do with our last year all together.”

Yusaku glanced around their section of the long table, boasting a half-asleep Jin next to his brother and an utterly disinterested Aoi and Go, returned to their lunches.

“No,” they chorused, just as Takeru on Yusaku’s right chimed in with an enthusiastic- “Yes!”

On Takeru’s other side, Kiku hummed and hurriedly swallowed a bite of food to add- “If Takeru is in, then so am I.”

Takeru turned to grin at her, she returned it in force. As always, the two of them were on the same wavelength. To be expected of childhood friends, Yusaku thought. 

Meanwhile, Shoichi turned to Yusaku, victory written across his face. At his side, Takeru threw him a pleading glance. Rendered powerless, Yusaku had no choice but to shrug and relent. He’d known it would come to this anyway.

“Great,” Shoichi said, “That’s five people, so now just-“

Jin lifted his head abruptly from where he’d propped it in his arms to stare at his brother. “Are you counting me?”

“Of course I’m counting you,” Shoichi replied, and reached out to ruffle Jin’s hair. Jin leaned back as far in his seat as he possibly could without crashing straight into Aoi on his other side to avoid it.

He said, as Aoi nearly slid her bento half a foot to the side to avoid their antics, “You shouldn’t count me. I’m not joining.”

“Yusaku is."

“And I’m not.”

“See, this is why Yusaku is my favorite brother,” Shoichi said, pulling Jin back to sit in his seat properly, and promptly taking the opportunity to mess with Jin’s hair.

“He’s not actually related to us,” Jin muttered, which was both true and something he knew Jin hardly meant.

“But we wrote him into the family register, so we’re stuck with him,” Shoichi joked back.

Jin just sighed. “I can’t play anyway.”

“Then you can be our manager,” Shoichi replied, before Yusaku could suggest the very same thing, and so with Jin’s lack of protest it was settled. 

Shoichi turned to his next targets- Aoi and Go, both of whom were eating their lunches and pretending very valiantly that they hadn’t been listening to a word of the conversation. 

“If Ema joins,” Aoi said, preempting Shoichi before he could make an offer without so much as looking at him, “then I will.”

Shoichi grinned; Yusaku glanced between them and thought that Aoi was severely underestimating the power Shoichi had to get people to do things he wanted them to, no matter how out of their comfort zone it initially seemed. His gaze turned fast to Go, who resolutely kept eating, the only one of them entirely unaffected. “No. I’m here on a wrestling scholarship. I don’t have time for distractions.”

“Oh, come on!” Takeru said, leaning over the table as if that would help him convince Go, “You can build muscle! Or stamina! Or, uh, something!”

Go stared at him unimpressed. “I’m already doing specialized training for that. Playing baseball would just waste my time.”

“Please?” Takeru asked, with probably the same earnestness that had convinced Go to break school rules and come to eat at the high school cafeteria in the first place.

But about this, it seemed Go wouldn’t be moved. “No.”

Takeru frowned, and on his other side Kiku leaned over to start whispering in his ear rather excitedly. Yusaku decided to ignore it for the time being- the idea of suddenly forming a baseball team was enough to process for now, nevermind what the two transfer students would inevitably come up with. Besides, he thought, glancing at the clock ticking steadily forwards on the wall- the lunch period was almost over, anyway.

He’d hardly time to walk out of school that afternoon before Shoichi was upon him, holding something in his hand and waving Yusaku down with a smile that probably meant nothing good. Still, he’d already been cornered, and therefore no longer had any power to refuse. 

“Carry this,” Shoichi said, and promptly dumped a delicate-looking cardboard box on him. It was about the size of a basketball and surprisingly heavy. Yusaku stares down at it with unbridled suspicion. Clearly this was a cake box; clearly whatever was inside felt nothing like cake. If it wasn’t taped shut with literal duct tape, Yusaku might have tried to sneak a look.

“What am I doing with this?” He asked instead, following Shoichi off the high school campus, towards the university division across the street. 

“You’re helping me convince Ema to join us,” he replied, and Yusaku figured that was all the explanation he was going to get. And that wasn’t a bad thing- he didn’t know Ema particularly well, compared to Aoi or Shoichi. He had to admit he was a little curious as to how he’d convince her into doing something seemingly so contrary to her character as sports.

Men and women weren’t allowed into each other’s dorms. This, however, had never stopped Aoi or Ema from simply barging into the boys’ dorms as they pleased, seemingly without consequence. Still, Yusaku and Shoichi were cautious as they did the same, creeping out into the women’s dorms with suspicious cake box in hand and winding their way up the three flights of stairs to Ema’s room. They made it there without incident, though the few moments they spent waiting for Ema to answer her door were spent with gazes locked on either end of the hall, ready to bolt the moment it was necessary, as if the dorm heads wouldn’t know that it was them and simply punish them _ more _ for running instead of owning up to their crime.

But Ema opened the door and their gazes snapped back to her as she smiled at them. “Shoichi! Nice to see you today. And thank you for the notes, the other day.”

“Don’t worry about it. I brought you cake,” Shoichi said, in a tone that only reinforced the notion that whatever inside wasn’t remotely close to being cake.

“Cake?” Ema echoed, and Yusaku could hear the mischief in her voice, watch it play out across her lips in a devious smile. 

“Cake,” Shoichi confirmed. Yusaku was beginning to think that _ cake _wasn't really a word at all. He all but shoved the box at Ema, as if to absolve himself of all responsibility. As far as he was now concerned, he was never here.

“Thank you,” she said sweetly, “I’m sure this will be fun.”

No, Yusaku absolutely didn’t want to know. He’d gladly pay _ not _ to know, at this point. Luckily, from the brief glance, secretive that Shoichi and Ema exchanged, he thought that it was something they wouldn’t spill.

“Let me put this in the fridge,” Ema continued, and disappeared back into her room. Now that she wasn’t commanding attention in the doorway, Yusaku had a change to peer into her room. It was less lavishly decorated than he’d expected from a woman who claimed to have eyes only for the beautiful and boasted about the treasures she’d gained from all her time abroad in various countries. 

As if she knew exactly what Yusaku was thinking, Ema called as she shut the door of her mini-fridge with a soft slam, “Let a girl have her secrets!”

Shoichi grinned and pat Yusaku on the shoulder; Yusaku huffed but didn’t protest. Whatever secrets Ema had, he thought, she could keep them. Shoichi too.

After a few more moments Ema too was back at her door, twirling a key around her fingers and smiling at them with mischief. “So,” she said, “what’s this I hear about coercing Aoi into joining a baseball team?”

Ten minutes and a trek to the top floor of the high school girls’ dorms, the anticipation between Shoichi and Ema, already overflowing, had reached its peak. Ema tapped the bell beside the door, and even in the hall they could hear it echo inside. It only took a few moments to hear a chair being pulled out, to hear the slide of the metal lock on the other side- Yusaku took an instinctive step back. If anything went wrong, he certainly didn’t want to be caught up in it.

Aoi opened the door, looked between them, gaze settling on Ema who was waving sweetly, then let out the most defeated sigh Yusaku had ever heard. She said, after a pause to shake her head and resign herself to her careless words taken as a promise, “When do we start?”

The answer to that question, apparently, was the next day after school, the group of them all gathered up on the high school baseball diamond, currently unused by the club. Takeru and Kiku were already waiting for them, waving them up the hill with bright smiles and obvious anticipation. On Yusaku’s either side, Ema dragged Aoi and Shoichi dragged Jin up behind them- more literal in the latter case than the former.

They had no sort of practice itinerary; after a few stretches and a lap around the diamond, Shoichi headed over to the mound and dared them to challenge his pitches.

The first to accept, surprisingly, was Aoi. Yusaku cast her a sidelong glance as Shoichi relegated him to first base, but Aoi only shrugged and said- “If I’m stuck here, I might as well commit, right?”

Yusaku supposed. He was here too, after all.

By the time he’d jogged over to first base, Aoi had already taken up a bat and stepped up to the plate- even from this distance, Yusaku could tell the look in her eyes was something fearsome.

“Okay,” Shoichi called, “Here comes the first one!”

Aoi said nothing, but dug in her foot, her posture turning sharp and coiled as a snake ready to strike. Shoichi pitched the ball, Aoi swung- and with a crack the ball flew fast out towards the outfield.

Aoi raced to first base- in the outfield, Ema scooped up the ball- but there wasn’t even a competition. Yusaku blinked at her as Aoi stepped firmly on the plate, pulling herself to a graceful halt. “You’re faster than you look.”

“Don’t underestimate me,” she said quite plainly, but there was a glimmer of pride in her eyes she couldn’t quite disguise. Yusaku hadn’t remembered her being on any sports teams, before this- then again, he had clear memories of Aoi running into class a moment before the teacher, clearly having sprinted up the stairs and likely for quite a while as she headed towards school in the morning, back in the years when she used to commute. And she’d looked utterly unfazed while she’d done it all. If anyone would still have stamina left from that, then Yusaku supposed that it would be Aoi.

On the mound Shoichi wound up for his next pitch; Yusaku’s gaze turned to the batter. Takeru seemed excited- it seemed like he knew what he was doing, at the very least. Perhaps he’d played at his middle school, Yusaku thought as he went to swing-

And missed it by a mile.

“Strike one,” called Kiku from behind him, standing to toss the ball back at Shoichi with surprising strength and accuracy. Yusaku looked between them, and thought that maybe it was _ Kiku _ who had played baseball- _ softball?- _ before.

Shoichi reared up for another pitch as Takeru eyed the ball with anticipation- only for the same thing to repeat twice more. Kiku made a loud buzzer noise after the third one, standing to knock a surprisingly not disappointed Takeru in the shoulder. “Aaaand that’s three strikes, you’re out.”

She mock-chased Takeru off the plate, and Takeru taunted her back by throwing his bat to the side and running to first base anyway.

“Oh no you don’t!” Kiku shouted after him, and promptly chucked the ball at Yusaku with far too much speed- startled, all Yusaku could do was leap out of the way. Still on the plate, Aoi caught it with both hands to compensate for her lack of glove. Takeru groaned, running past the plate before circling backwards, stopping at Yusaku’s side, not out of breath but somehow a little hopeless. 

“Takeru,” Yusaku said, “is your hand-eye coordination actually not that great?”

Takeru blinked, then grinned, sheepishly messing with his bangs. “Maybe? 

“Then why did you want to play baseball?”

“It… sounded fun?” Takeru said, quite unconvincingly. Yusaku squinted at him, but Takeru didn’t break, just kept that disarming smile on him, the one he and Kiku had figured out a week into their acquaintance that kept him from pressing them any further. 

Yusaku just shook his head. Not his problem, he reminded himself, not today.

They went about their practice a while longer, running bases and striking out and retrieving foul balls that flew far back over their heads as Jin watched it all from the shade of a tree on the side of the field. Supposedly he was managing; Yusaku had a sneaking suspicion that he was just in his phone, not paying the world so much as a passing glance.

“Okay,” Shoichi called as the sun began to set, turning the sky above all shades of orange and gradient pink, “that seems good for today. Good work, everybody! Let’s bring it in!”

One by one the makeshift team of them gathered at the mound, making their way back from their various positions around the plates-

And on the sidelines, Jin crumpled abrupt to the ground. Shoichi pushed past them all to reach his side, pulling him up from the ground. No one besides Yusaku, who’d followed just a moment behind could hear his soft curses, the bad habit he tried so hard to hide. He stopped to help Shoichi support Jin a moment, to help him hook an arm under Jin’s legs and pull him up into his arms. It took only a few moments; when Shoichi lifted his head again he was bright as ever, smiling apologetically. “So that’s it for the day! Good work, everyone. I’ve got class tomorrow, but we can pick it up again on Thursday if everyone else is free.”

For a moment there was silence as everyone nodded, various stages of hesitant, universally worried.

“Is Jin..?” Yusaku glanced around- the voice had come from Kiku. Yusaku had forgotten that she and Takeru, only just transferred, hadn’t yet gotten used to Jin’s episodes.

“Fine,” Shoichi answered, though it was likely only Yusaku that could notice his voice was a bit strained. “I mean, it would be better if he didn’t fall asleep like this at all, but… We deal with it how we can.”

“Oh,” said Kiku, fiddling with her hands self-consciously, “Well, if there’s anything we can ever do to help, just let us know.”

Shoichi grinned. “Thanks. Just keep an eye out for him. All the staff at the high school knows, but I’m not around all the time. Just… don’t pity him too much, okay? He used to be a lot worse. He’s worked hard to get here. So don’t treat him like he’s weak.”

Kiku shook her head. “I’d never do that. Jin is Jin. Right, Takeru?”

She nudged Takeru in the side, and Takeru nodded twice, sharply. 

“Thanks. From both of us.” He paused, his voice losing most of its serious edge, then said- “Okay. So really. Everyone’s free on Thursdays, right? That’s what we discussed before? Then we’ll have our next practice then. See you guys tomorrow.”

They called their partings, making their way back to their various dorms around the campuses- all except for Yusaku, who turned to Takeru and inclined his head towards the retreating Shoichi. Takeru nodded, flashing him a thumbs up, and Yusaku turned his back to follow Shoichi and Jin out of the high school grounds, towards the university across the street. 

It was a few hours before Jin woke again- unusually long, which made Shoichi fret, but it wasn’t as if the two of them didn’t know how important it was for Jin to catch what sleep he could. Jin didn’t move, but the air in the room changed. Yusaku spun in Shoichi’s chair, away from his homework half-finished on the desk and towards Jin on the bed.

“Did I fall asleep again?” Jin asked as he blinked awake, though it was obvious he already knew the answer. “Sorry.”

Yusaku shrugged. “You can’t control it, right? Shoichi went out to get things for dinner. You slept through the cafeteria hours.”

“Oh,” Jin said, then added after a moment of thought- “Sorry.”

“You should know by now you don’t have to apologize by now for your health.”

“No,” Jin clarified, “it was chicken katsu day at the cafeteria, right? I know you like that. So sorry.”

Yusaku just stared at him. “Jin. I don’t care about chicken katsu more than I care about you.”

“I know,” Jin replied. 

“I’m serious,” Yusaku repeated- something he’d only do with Jin. 

“I know,” Jin repeated again, slightly more cheerful than the first time- and exactly then did Shoichi suddenly burst through the door, hands full with convenience store shopping bags. An instant ramen dinner, if Yusaku had ever seen one.

The second he saw Jin was awake again, Shoichi waved a bag at him and smiled. “Dinner?”

Jin groaned, but pushed himself up from his bed to grab the water heater from its place on his desk. Shoichi turned to Yusaku and waved a bag at him, too. “I got ice cream, too, so we should eat that first.”

Yusaku took the bag- and sure enough, it was filled with a box of ice cream. Not just three bars, but an entire box- and on any other day Yusaku would protest, but it was impossible to ignore the way Jin had suddenly perked up at the promise of ice cream. “Yeah. Before it melts.”

“Before it melts,” Jin replied, eyeing the box in Yusaku’s hands as he sat down on the other side of the low table, all but shoving the water heater off on Shoichi. Yusaku pushed the box to his side of the table- and so it became a family dinner, lively as ever.

Thursday’s practice proceeded much the same way as Tuesday’s had- Shoichi pitching, Ema somehow managing a larger portion of the outfield than one person should have been capable of, Takeru swinging and missing by a mile, and Yusaku managing whatever he had to at the time.

It was pleasantly uneventful- up until the moment Aoi stepped up to bat.

The moment she struck the ball, it was obvious she’d miscalculated- instead of flying far into the outfield like she’d intended, the ball cut a high arc straight towards the walking path up atop the hill behind them. None of them were strangers to running out to pick up foul balls, and the occasional aware passerby managed to catch it and throw it back with a laugh-

But this passerby was neither aware nor likely to laugh it off if they were found. The dread struck them all at once. 

“Watch out!” Chorused a few of the club, but as their realization struck all at different times, it turned into nothing but a cacophony of noise. Uncaring of their meaningless noise, Spectre continued on without so much as turning his head- and Aoi’s foul ball smacked him straight in the shoulder.

He turned to them; the look on his face would send shivers down the spine of anyone else in the school with how tightly its rage was controlled. Spectre leaned down to pick up the baseball that had struck him, turning it over in his hand with the same sort of casual disdain that one usually saved for a clump of lint found inside a the pocket of a winter jacket. Not a moment later he turned it on all of them- unfortunately, Yusaku had seen it one too many times to be intimidated.

“This _ club_,” Spectre said, and Yusaku could practically hear the quotation marks with the disdain in his voice, “isn’t authorized to use the sports fields. And university students, with the exception of Kusanagi Shoichi, aren’t allowed on this campus. Nor are high schoolers allowed on theirs, before you try and commandeer the other fields and cause trouble for someone else.”

Spectre threw the foul ball back at Aoi, and she startled, raising both hands in order to catch it without a glove. She caught it handily, then glared up at Spectre, who wouldn’t so much as meet her gaze as he swept his over the assembled group. “Disperse immediately. The next time I catch you doing this, you’ll all be reported to school administration.”

And with that final declaration, Spectre turned on his heel and walked away, back towards the main building.

Shoichi looked at him as he walked away, then at Aoi, tossing the ball over to Takeru, then at Spectre again as he slipped over the crest of the hill back to the school building. Yusaku watched him do it all, and hoped terribly that he wasn’t getting any ideas in his head.

(But even as he hoped, he resigned himself to the fact that he’d probably end up entangled in another one of Shoichi’s schemes before the week was up.)

“So,” said Ema, inexplicably back in the high school cafeteria- though she clearly wasn’t wearing a uniform, and _ clearly _ didn’t belong here, “what’s this I hear about ghosts haunting the high school?”

Yusaku sighed. There were always rumors like that flying around- that six ghosts haunted the school, trapped here by some force or another. Usually there were additions- that they needed to be summoned out by some sort of ritual, or that they could grant wishes or some other nonsense that Yusaku had long since been desensitized to. But Ema was an exchange student, so chances were this as her first time hearing whatever was making the rounds. 

_ “Ghosts?” _ Takeru squeaked, and Yusaku glanced over at him from the side of his eye. Apparently, Takeru and Kiku hadn’t managed to hear any of the rumors yet, either. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Yusaku said, “they’re just stories.”

“Just… stories, huh?” replied Takeru, clutching onto his spoon (dripping excess curry back down to the plate) with enough force to make his knuckles go white. “Juuuust stories?”

Yusaku nodded, attempting to ignore Takeru’s sudden twitchiness as the other boy forced himself to take an unnatural bite. “Just excuses for people to go ghost hunting when they’re bored.”

It was, of course, that exact moment that a familiar voice chose to ring over the table, two trays of food set down on either side of Yusaku.

“Did someone say ghost hunting?” Shoichi said, with that particular lilt to his voice that indicated he’d heard them perfectly clearly but was going to make something ridiculous of it anyway. 

“Please no,” muttered Takeru, clutching tight onto Kiku’s sleeve and nearly causing her to drop her mug of soup over her skirt. She frowned over at him, then took the cup with her other hand and set it neatly back down on the table before detaching Takeru with practiced ease. 

“What,” asked Shoichi, leaning over the table with blatant curiosity, “are you scared of ghosts?”

“Oh,” replied Kiku with the utmost nonchalance, “He’s terrified.”

“Kikuuuuu,” Takeru whined, though she just patted him on the arm and ignored him. Yusaku got the feeling that this had happened more times over the years than either of them could- or even wanted- to count. 

“Hey, we’re not judging here,” Shoichi replied with a soothing grin. And certainly he spoke for all of them- save perhaps Ema, who was smiling with a dangerous gleam in her eye. Not that Yusaku thought she would do anything malicious- she wasn’t that type of woman- but just that when she enabled Shoichi’s schemes, everything suddenly became that much more of an elaborate production. And if the game was going to be ghost hunting, then...

“I don’t like them either,” Jin added softly, quiet enough that it almost went unheard beneath the lunchroom chatter. Takeru shot him a grateful look- though, Yusaku thought, he didn’t yet know that Jin’s demons weren’t quite the same thing as Takeru’s old superstitions. Yusaku cast Jin a sideways glance, though Jin made no comment. If he wanted to let Takeru think they were the same, Yusaku thought, then that was kindness.

“Then that’s all the more reason to go ghost hunting,” Aoi chimed in disinterestedly, “Face your fears.”

“Face my fears!” Takeru echoed, with a gung-ho energy that Yusaku knew had just doomed all of them by the way Shoichi grinned.

“That’s the spirit,” he said, leaning over the table to pat Takeru on the shoulder- and Yusaku started the countdown to their impending doom.

He didn’t even get three full days. 

Shoichi cornered them as usual at the lunch table, this time with Ema tagging along at his side as they laid out the plan. Once school had ended and the sun had long since set over the horizon, they’d meet at the back door to the high school. It was Yusaku’s job to make sure that one of the first floor windows was open (_ “Why me?”) _ which would be enough for Ema to climb in and re-open the doors from the inside. 

(Despite his protests, Yusaku _ did _ make sure one of the classroom windows stayed open after everyone had left for the day. And the back door was propped open when they all arrived in the covered corridor connecting the two main wings of the high school, so Yusaku supposed they’d properly gotten up to their mischief even far before Shoichi started explaining the rules of their test of courage.)

“Okay,” said Shoichi, “everybody’s gotta take one stick. There’s two teams of three, and your goal is to find the matching ribbon while searching for ghosts! The first team to bring back their ribbon _ or _ a ghost report is the winner. Sound good?”

There was a small chorus from the gathered- not too loud, or else they’d end up tipping off the security that roamed around the campuses at night, but just loud enough to convey their enthusiasm. Or at least Yusaku thought it was enthusiasm. If just a bit resigned, anyway. One by one they lined up to pluck a stick from Shoichi’s hand. Yusaku, naturally, ended up in the very back, not that it was any sort of an issue.

Yusaku plucked the last remaining stick from Shoichi’s hand- not that it wasn’t immediately obvious whose team he’d be on. The end of it was red, and he meandered over towards Aoi and Takeru- the latter with her usual bored expression, and Takeru smiling wide. Too wide. So much so that it was no longer natural, and just something that Yusaku privately thought was scarier than any trick the two college students had set up.

“I guess we’re doing this,” Aoi said with a sigh, and Yusaku nodded- though with much less fervor that Takeru, who seemed very obviously just trying to convince himself that this was going to be anything other than an _ experience. _

“We don’t have any other choice,” Yusaku said, glancing back to the other team- Kiku chattering excitedly to Jin, taking hold of his arm gently and moving to pull him towards the entrance. Whatever Takeru’s hangup with ghosts was, it appeared Kiku didn’t seem to share it in the least. And as their last member followed them in, Yusaku couldn’t help but mull over the fact that Ema wasn’t on their team. Yusaku wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse- on one hand, she wouldn’t be immediately around to try and spring one of her and Shoichi’s mechanisms on them. On the other hand, she wouldn’t be in immediate view, which was quite potentially the more dangerous option. Even around the people she cared about she was a crafty woman; Yusaku knew better than to underestimate her. 

“Good luck,” he said offhandedly to Kiku as she and Ema and Jin headed in.

“Huh?” she turned back to him for a second, tilting her head with obvious confusion- but was drawn away by Ema, without the time for Yusaku to give her any sort of clarification on just what exactly she was probably in for. Oh well. She’d find out sooner or later- or just get in on Ema’s side, and then they’d really have it in for them. 

After a few moments to let the first team disperse inside, decreasing their chances of bumping into each other meaninglessly- especially with Ema at the helm of the first team, Shoichi turned to usher them in. But before he did, he gave them another last few words of warning.

“It’s not necessary,” Shoichi reassured, staring pointedly at Takeru. But Takeru just shook his head, eyes shining with determination out from behind his glasses. 

“I’m going for it! All or nothing!”

Shoichi grinned down at his sheer determination- met it there with equally strong acknowledgement. “Then go in there and get it.”

“Yeah!” said Takeru, with a grin that resembled his normal self- though he still let Aoi lead the way inside. Yusaku huffed, an amused little sound not quite a laugh, and took up the rear. 

The first few scares they encountered on their search of the first-floor classrooms were nothing much- erasers and buckets perched on doors to shower them with harmless glitter and dust that Yusaku really didn’t pity Shoichi and Ema for having to clean up afterwards, and a desk upon which dark liquid was slowly dripping- _ clearly not blood, _ Aoi pointed out, rolling her eyes as she flipped on the lightswitch for that room to point to the glove rigged up to the ceiling, slowly dripping down onto the desk that was their red herring. 

Takeru, for his part, didn’t seem to be that badly shaken by either of them- though the way he clung close to Aoi and Yusaku in turn might have had something to do with that. If anything, it seemed he was gaining confidence, if the way he pushed into the art classroom first was any indication- only to leap backwards as something began to flutter in the distant corner of the room, backlit by the hints of the moon through the drawn shades. With a noise not-quite a shriek, Takeru latched on to Yusaku’s arm, meaning Yusaku was left trying to drag Takeru back inside as Aoi strolled ahead unbothered by the the faint figure seemingly hovering over the classroom.

“Ghost,” whispered Takeru, a little frantically, “Aoi, ghost!”

“It’s not a ghost.”

Aoi sighed and pushed the stand over with a pointed thumb. It hit the ground with an unsatisfying _ whoosh. _ Sure enough, now that the moonlight pouring in through the window was no longer backlighting it, it looked just as normal as anything else in the empty classroom. 

Takeru finally loosened his death grip on Yusaku’s arm. Barely, but enough that Yusaku could feel as the circulation slowly returned, pins and needles painful in his palm. “It’s not?”

“Of course it’s not a real ghost,” Aoi said, rolling her eyes with such a lift of her head even in the dim light could the both of them see her do it. “A real ghost is much more…”

“What do you _ mean, _ a _ real _ ghost?” shouted Takeru, throwing himself with full force back onto Yusaku’s arm. Yusaku reeled back, trying to confirm he still had hearing in his right ear. 

“Aoi,” Yusaku said, gently trying to pry Takeru’s fingers off his arm before he was forced to amputate it before realizing that, somehow, Takeru was _ strong _ and pulling at them with full force, “Please stop.”

Aoi just sighed, dropping her head and shoulders before shrugging and pulling the ruby ribbon from the back of the cutout. “Whatever. We got the last clue, so we can head back down now. So let’s just-” 

But she didn’t get to finish her sentence. Rending the silence of the empty school building, there was a scream. 

“Kiku?” Takeru said, whirling on the spot, all traces of fear forgotten. Before Yusaku could so much as think to follow, Takeru had burst out of the empty art room and bolted halfway down the hall, leaving Yusaku and Aoi to follow him more on instinct than anything else. It sounded as if it had come from downstairs; together they rushed down towards the source of it. They glanced in each empty classroom as they made their way down the hall, until Aoi spotted the open doors to the gym, drawing Yusaku’s attention to it with a pointed finger.

“Look,” she said between breaths, “there.”

Wordlessly did they pick up speed, bursting into the gym just as its lights flickered to brilliant life, forcing them to throw up their hands against it until their eyes adjusted. And when they did, what they saw there left them speechless. 

Kiku was picking herself up from the ground with breathless laughter, surrounded by a mess of string and blackish-grey streamers, Jin watching from the walls beside Ema, who’d just flipped on the lights.

“That was so scary!” Kiku said with pleased relish, turning to Ema with a smile. “Good job!”

Ema looked quite pleased with herself as she smiled, the cat that had caught the canary- or in this case, the one who’d dropped what, by Yusaku’s best estimate, where a bunch of tattered kites over Kiku’s shoulders, like ghostly hands reaching out in the dark. It seemed that it was a good thing they hadn’t been on Ema’s team, after all. 

“Well,” said Aoi, straightening up, having already caught her breath, “I’m glad it was nothing.”

Yusaku nodded, still trying somewhat harder to catch his. He really wasn’t used to all this activity- even after all the practices they’d done so far. It seemed sports were never going to be his forte. 

It was at this point that the others noticed them, starting with Jin giving them a small little wave, and the two girls doing the same a moment later. 

“Nice of you to join us,” said a rather amused Ema, knowing that it had been Kiku’s scream that had drawn them here. Her gaze slid downwards, towards the red ribbon still in Aoi’s hand. She added- “And good job in finding the ribbon. It looks like you’re the winners of this test… So long as no ghost spirits it away before we’re done here.”

Aoi rolled her eyes. Kiku just laughed, and crossed the floor to them. “By the way,” she began, looking over their shoulders, “where did Takeru go?”

At Kiku’s words, everyone looked around the gymnasium- thinking that Takeru had probably just launched himself into a corner or something until Ema had flipped some of the lights- but there wasn’t so much as a sign of him. Not even a breath, a hint of presence to suggest that he had ever been here in the first place. 

“We better go find him,” Ema said, the tiniest hint of worry in her otherwise normal tone, and the rest of the group nodded, following her out of the gym and down through the halls. Yusaku couldn't help but start to think of the options- Takeru had been the first one to run off when they’d heard the scream. Yusaku didn’t think he’d fallen and gotten hurt, but it was strange that Aoi and Yusaku had managed to find the other group before he did. 

“Did you come straight from the art room?” Ema asked, and Yusaku nodded. Ema nodded, then led them with purpose through the halls, not quite running but certainly at a brisk clip. She retraced their steps with perfect accuracy, turning them around the hall and making straight for the stairwell- only for a shadow to catch Yusaku’s eye from one of the slightly ajar doors on the way there. 

“Wait,” he said, stopping in his tracks to push it open carefully. This was the principal’s office- and he certainly had imagined that even Shoichi and Ema would consider a place as important as this off-limits. None of their traps and tricks had ended up being things that would cause any sort of permanent damage, but sneaking around in the school after hours- that they still weren’t actually supposed to be in- was already breaking the rules enough without rigging up traps in there, too. 

The door swung open with a small creak, pitch black inside with the curtains drawn- and suddenly a hand shot out of the murk, curling around Yusaku’s ankle and nearly making him kick out on instinct before he recognized just what sort of hand had reached out to grab him.

“Takeru?”

“Did you see that? C’mon, tell me you saw that,” Takeru said, clinging to the leg of Yusaku’s pants. 

“See… what?” He asked, anticipating the answer but already disliking what he was about to receive. 

“The ghost!” Takeru shouted, “The ghost! With the burning eyes! And the, the-”

Yusaku waited a moment, but it didn’t seem like Takeru was going to continue, too traumatized by whatever he thought he’d seen. Yusaku turned on Ema with a frown, resigned to the fact that _ of course _ they’d gone that far, but still willing to ask why, seeing as Takeru really wasn’t able to- but she was frowning too, her expression pinched and puzzled, eyes scanning the room with crossed arms. 

“But we didn’t set anything up here…”

Takeru let out another shriek. “Don’t _ say _ that!”

Ema laughed awkwardly, for a rare occurrence, unable to pick out a quick and easy response. She ended up saying nothing, only patting Takeru consolingly on the shoulder as she motioned for all of them to head out. But as she passed, Yusaku swore he heard her say, a little troubled- “But it’s the truth…”

(Yusaku decided not to think about it.)

In their end, their group won the test of courage with double points- and Shoichi’s unwavering smile but clear concern over Takeru’s ghost encounter- and the adventure of the day finally reached its end shortly before the sun was set to rise. The one blessing to all of this was that tomorrow was Sunday, at least, and their makeshift club had no plans for practice. Even if they slept the day away, there’d be nothing to worry about save a bit of missed studying that neither of them really did anyway. Though in Takeru’s case, it was most definitely not because he didn’t need to.

But despite all the excitement of the day, the exhaustion pulling down at his bones, Yusaku couldn’t fall asleep. 

“Hey, Takeru?” Yusaku asked, staring up at the springs of the bunk above. Takeru hummed back, more a half-asleep groan than anything.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you want to play baseball, anyway?”

“Huh?”

Yusaku sighed. Either Takeru wasn’t actually awake, or he was just too tired to process what Yusaku was actually saying to him. He repeated- “Why did you want to play baseball? You were the first one that volunteered.”

“Oh, uh... “ Takeru said, finally sounding like himself again. “That’s the thing. When I first transferred here, the only friend I had was Kiku. Since we transferred here together, and all. And luckily we found you guys pretty quickly, but, uh… So I guess it wasn’t really that I wanted to play baseball, or anything. I just thought it would be nice to spend some more time with you all, or… something like that.”

The room descended into soft silence. A breeze blew in from the cracked sliding door, rustling the curtains and throwing moonlight slanted across the room. All of Yusaku’s tiredness vanished from him in a blink, replaced by a concern he couldn't quell. 

“Takeru?”

“Yeah?”

“You know we would’ve kept spending time with you whether you played baseball with us or not, right?”

In typical Takeru fashion, the silence didn’t dwell. Takeru poked his head over the edge of the railing and squinted down at Yusaku, precarious enough that Yusaku was convinced he was about to fall. “Of course I know that! I mean, our first meeting might’ve been, uh, you know, nevermind.”

Their first meeting had been, of course, Yusaku trying very hard not to notice that there was someone following him through the halls of the school, ducking into empty classrooms before class started and staring a hole into his back as he gathered up the courage to approach. Something that ultimately had been completely unnecessary, given that Takeru had taken the empty seat directly next to Yusaku in homeroom _ anyway. _ But he thought it better to let Takeru keep thinking he hadn’t noticed. His pride had already been through a big enough ordeal, today.

Takeru continued, easily skipping over his flub- “I mean, I figured out right away that you guys are good people. You’re not gonna turn on me and Kiku just ‘cuz we’re not from around here. Or because I’m bad with ghosts. And technology. I just… I dunno. I just wanted to make sure we’d have fun. All together.”

“And we’re going to.”

Yusaku didn’t know just what it was that compelled him to make that promise- not when it wasn’t something he could guarantee. Everything might still crumble into nothing. Certainly some of them had. But in the end, Yusaku supposed, even those had been fun. Even those had been worth something to them.

So maybe it was something he could promise. At the very least, it was something they could both believe in.

Takeru smiled down at him, expression bright in the dark- and said, just before righting himself in his bunk- “Yeah. I know.”

The peace continued for just long enough undisturbed that Yusaku thought that Shoichi might have forgotten- unfortunately, Yusaku was the one who’d forgotten that he simply wasn’t that lucky.

They were on their way back from the convenience store on the far side of the university campus, intending to study in the Kusanagi room for a while when they passed Go headed out the other direction. He nodded at them- and then saw Takeru bringing up the rear and promptly crossed the street, paying no mind to the lack of crosswalk.

Takeru leaped into the street after him, waving his one hand not laden with plastic bags. “Go!”

Steps, hitting fast against the pavement. “No.” 

“Go, please?”

Steps, hitting faster across the pavement. “_ No.” _

“Just one game?” Takeru asked, casually taking two steps for Go’s every one.

Go didn’t even answer that one, instead just heading out towards the city outside the South Gate without so much as a backwards glance. Takeru stopped at the gate, watching him until he turned the corner down the road.

“It’s a no-go,” Takeru said, shaking his head forlorn as he crossed the distance back towards Yusaku and Jin, plastic bags on his wrists shifting with the crash of soda bottles against each other.

“Uh-huh,” Yusaku replied, wondering why exactly Takeru had thought that kind of persuasion would work on Go in the first place.

“I’ll keep trying though!” Takeru said, flipping back to his usual good mood.

Jin just eyed him resigned. “I don’t think that will make him change his mind.”

“You don’t know that!”

Jin blinked at him, unimpressed. “It didn’t change his mind the last twelve times.”

“Why are you keeping count?” Takeru asked, voice shriller that he probably meant it to be. Probably, Yusaku thought, embarrassed at the fact that he’d been caught asking Go to join their baseball team twelve times in a month.

Jin shrugged. Takeru groaned, looking for Yusaku to back him up. Yusaku said nothing, and meanwhile Shoichi watched them all before suggesting, “Why don’t you ask that student council of yours?”

Jin made a face. Yusaku didn’t, but very nearly did. The thought of asking Kogami Ryoken and Spectre to join their ragtag _ baseball team _ was an invitation for disaster, no matter which way Yusaku looked at it. 

Shoichi continued on undeterred, “Come on, it’s the manager and the captain’s job to find more members, right? Or, well, I found them. But it’s your job to recruit them. That one kid we saw the other day has a good arm. He’d make a good outfielder for us. Or maybe first base? Seems like he’s got the instincts.”

That would certainly gratify Spectre to hear, which meant that Yusaku was never going to tell him. Not that they spoke much in the first place. 

“I’m sure Kogami doesn’t have the time,” Yusaku said, but apparently no opposition would be heard. 

Shoichi clapped them on the shoulders and grinned down at them. “Then that’s it. Those’ll be the last two members of our team. You can recruit them, right?”

Yusaku and Jin exchanged a long-suffering glance. The prospect of having to speak to the student council was unappealing on its own, nevermind being tasked with asking them something they’d surely refuse. 

“Go still hasn’t agreed to join us,” Jin muttered, and Shoichi apparently chose not to hear.

“Aoi and Ema haven’t been showing up to practice,” Yusaku added, glaring just slightly up at Shoichi- he’d been dragged into bribing Ema in the first place. If she wasn’t going to follow through, then he’d decided that fell firmly into Shoichi’s responsibilities, not his.

Shoichi scratched at the back of his neck a second, looking sheepish- so there was something going on that he’d forgotten to tell them, Yusaku thought- and explained, “Ah, yeah, sorry about that. Ema’s an international grad student, remember? She’s got lab work or something for the next week. She said she’ll have more free time after that, though.”

“But what about Aoi?” Yusaku asked, and Shoichi met him with a hapless shrug. Not that he’d expected Shoichi to know, exactly, but he always seemed to have a handle on exactly what was going on in the school at all times. Especially since Ema and Aoi were like sisters, and given how close Ema and Shoichi were…

Yusaku frowned. A mystery

They turned to Jin. Shoichi prompted- “Did she happen to tell the manager anything?”

Jin thought for a moment, then said- “Right. She didn’t tell me anything.”

Yusaku shook his head. What a pair the two of them made- no wonder he felt so often that nothing got done around them.

“I’ll go find her,” Yusaku said, knowing that he was their best hope. Not that he and Aoi were every anything that could be called _ close, _ exactly, but they’d been in the same class for years. They both stuck to the walls- and that, really, was the only reason either of them had managed to find themselves in the same circle. 

He supposed they were friends- it wasn’t as if he’d ever asked to confirm it. But if things came down to a fight, then Yusaku would pick her side, and Aoi would pick his. Or at least, she’d probably pick his. If only because their ideas tended to overlap.

Regardless, he went to find her. It didn’t seem as if anyone else was going to, at any rate.

He found her, luckily, before his first choice of location- he thought she’d have been in her room, as she usually was when she wasn’t in class- but instead he caught sight of her as he snuck in through the back door of the girl’s dorm, thankfully without witness. Aoi was in the lobby, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest on one of the worn old couches. 

Aoi sat in front of the television, blaring nothing but bad news. The ribbon below ran a short report on an accident that had taken place. Aoi’s expression was gloomy to match. Yusaku, knowing not what to say, sat down on the common room couch with her, though at the far end. They watched the tragedy on the news unfold a while longer before Aoi suddenly snatched the remote off the coffee table and changed the channel. The laughter of the audience in a variety show echoed through the otherwise empty room, too-jarring in contrast.

When Yusaku glanced over at her, she crossed her arms, still holding the remote in one hand. “This was too depressing.” A pause, then- “Why are you here?”

“You haven’t been coming to practice.”

Aoi sighed and sank back further into the couch, throwing the remote to the side. “Sorry. I haven’t felt like going. I have a lot on my mind lately. About the fact I might get a roommate.”

“You used to commute, right?” Yusaku asked, and Aoi nodded. “Why don’t you, anymore?”

Aoi wouldn’t meet his eyes when she replied, instead staring at the television as it droned on about trivia neither of them cared about. “It’s complicated. I didn’t realize _ how _ complicated until just now.”

“That’s why you haven’t been coming to practice?”

“More or less,” Aoi said, seeming loathe to admit anything else.

“Do you-“

Aoi shook her head. “Not really. I’ve been talking to Ema about it a lot. And I’ll be back. I promise. I just have to finish thinking things over right now. Can you just give me that much time?”

Yusaku nodded. Aoi smiled at him, softly. “Thank you. I’ll talk with Ema about it a little more tonight. And you should probably leave before one of the dorm heads find you. Or you’ll get in trouble. Again.”

Yusaku grimaced. The last time Dorm Head Hayami had caught him- though he’d pointed out that it very much hadn’t only been him- sneaking around in the girl’s dorms, trying to get to Aoi and Kiku to leave them a message, not only had he been restricted from leaving campus for a week, but he’d also been in charge of cleaning the halls. All of them. Without help. It hadn’t been a pleasant experience. 

Yusaku stood to go- he’d been lucky enough that no one had walked in through the front door. Not like it was totally forbidden for boys to be in the lobby- they just had to check in at the front desk. Where Hayami was. Where Yusaku had definitely not passed. 

But just as he reached the door, Aoi called out- “Wait.”

Yusaku did. He turned his head back to her, tilting it in curiosity and encouragement both.

“You came here because you wanted to help me, right?” Aoi asked, and again did Yusaku nod. He’d been all but asked, certainly, but that wasn’t the only reason he’d come. They were… friends. Probably. 

Regardless of any of that, he was worried about her. There was no need to see anyone needlessly hurting. If he could do anything to ease that pain, to prevent it completely- then he would, without hesitation. 

“Thanks,” Aoi said, and it sounded incredibly honest from a girl who could so often be standoffish. “I know that you want to help me. And I know that I’m really lucky to have all these friends who are willing to listen. I… didn’t have that, before. Not for a long time.”

The distant days before he’d met Jin and Shoichi rang through the distant chimes of memory, a loneliness that couldn’t be overcome. The split second he’d thought he might have had friends, only for the possibility to be stolen away from him by a cloud he couldn’t quite shake, even now. Oh, thought Yusaku as Aoi continued- _ oh. _

“And I appreciate being able to talk to people. I want to be strength, you know? Not just for me, but for everyone I care about.”

They were the same. 

Not in all ways- certainly not in most- but at least in this.

“But some things I want to work through on my own strength. Just to prove I can.”

Yusaku understood that more than anything. And it was clear that Aoi recognized it in him, too, because she continued one final time- “So we’ll figure things out soon. And I might have one more person to talk to soon, too. So… Well, I don’t know. I’ll figure it out as I go. I’m just sure of that for now, so… Thanks, I guess. For coming to talk to me. Even just saying this much makes me feel a lot better.”

Aoi didn’t smile, but no longer was her expression so downcast. The tight frown she’d been sporting just a second ago was no longer so grievous. And Yusaku supposed that in itself was enough. 

“See you at practice,” he said, bowing gracefully out of the conversation and leaving Aoi to the peace she’d wanted in the first place.

“Yeah,” Aoi replied, looking far more at ease than she had been just a moment ago, “see you at practice.”

And Yusaku left her be, determination to make this succeed renewed. No matter how trivial it might have been- or how outlandish their quest for more members. Everyone was struggling with their own problems, and they’d all come together for this, simple as it might have been. So Yusaku couldn’t let them down. He wouldn’t allow himself to.

“There’s going to be a meteor shower!” Kiku’s voice rang loud through the cafeteria as she bolted towards them, ducking through a crowd of first years to make her way to them, sliding into the empty seat beside Yusaku.

“Oh?” Jin perked up at that, eyes glittering with something a little more than his usual sleepy manner. Privately, Yusaku was a bit surprised that he didn’t already knew- Jin had always loved looking up at the stars, a habit born of his strange sleep schedules and Shoichi’s tendency towards the outdoors when they were all just children. Things like eclipses and meteor showers were some of the few things that would really get him excited. 

“Yeah! It’s still a long way away,” Kiku said, “but we all have to make sure we get on the roof to see it. Okay?”

The roof, as they’d all long since discovered, wasn’t as locked off as it was made out to be by the staff. Though the actual door up to it was locked- as it had been since long before any of them had gone through the school halls, and as Yusaku suspected it would remain long after all of them had left. But there was a window. And that window had always been notoriously drafty. And if part of that was because Shoichi had jammed a metal ruler under it to pry it under when he had been their age and the tradition had only been kept strongly by Jin and Yusaku, then…

Well, no one had to know that anyone was ever on it. 

“We’ll make a party out of it,” Shoichi said, simultaneously both assuring them and escalating the scale of the whole thing by about a thousand. In Shoichi’s terms, a party meant more snacks than any of them would actually be able to eat and a dozen new games that would end either in their utter embarrassment or something surprisingly fun with a dozen new stories to tell about each other.

“That sounds nicer than ghost hunting, at least,” Takeru muttered under his breath, with the unfortunate timing of what seemed to be the entire cafeteria going silent as soon as he started to speak.

This time, at least, no one decided to tease him on it- his strange encounter had been trauma enough without the social aspect of it, even if he seemed to be fine so long as no one mentioned it. 

And so the day continued on normal as could be- though given Aoi and Ema’s continued absence, Yusaku wondered if it could really be called _ normal. _ Not when they were all beginning to feel the weight of the absence. School was one thing, and worries were another. He wanted to respect their wishes to work on their issues on their own- but he was starting to wonder if it wasn’t better for him to try and intervene and support them any way he could regardless. But just as he made up his mind to try and visit at least Aoi again after practice, Kiku perked up from her part of the field. 

“Aoi!” Kiku said, waving her hand high, ball still clutched in it, any thought of throwing it to the base forgotten. Yusaku turned- and sure enough, standing on the crest of the hill were Ema and Aoi, strolling leisurely towards them. The practice began to break down as the two of them made their way to the mound, everyone coming in from their positions to come and listen in- and Jin from the shade of his tree. 

“As an apology for missing practice, we’re going to hold a party for you all,” Ema said, patting Aoi on the shoulder, “Aren’t we?”

“The day before our game,” Aoi said with a curt nod.

“Game?” Takeru said, and Yusaku felt a sudden wave of exasperation roll over him. He turned to Shoichi, wondering just what the rest of them hadn’t been told.

“_Game?” _ He said, quite pointedly. 

Shoichi shook his head at Ema and Aoi. “You’re stealing my thunder! I was going to make the announcement at the end of practice.”

“Then let’s end it now,” Jin said, and Shoichi tapped him teasingly on the back of the head, too light to even be called a slap.

“Anyway,” Shoichi continued, “At the start of next month, we’re going to play a match against a bunch of athlete friends from university.”

“University students?” Kiku asked, rolling the baseball from hand to hand, running her thumb nervously over the seam. “Can we do that?”

“Well, we don’t need to win,” Aoi said, though she didn’t seem quite entirely convinced of the fact herself. 

“No, we definitely need to win,” Takeru replied, grinning with the same wild ambition that always overtook him. And while Yusaku wouldn’t call himself the competitive type, exactly, he also couldn’t deny that losing would leave a sour taste in all their mouths. But-

“But we still don’t have enough people to form a team,” Jin pointed out, following Yusaku’s train of thought perfectly.

“And _ whose _ responsibility is it to find more members, manager?” Shoichi asked, at which point Jin just looked at Yusaku in despair. Yusaku couldn’t do anything but return it blankly. _ We’re in this together. _

The pained look Jin shot him back would’ve made him laugh, if he couldn’t commiserate to the exact same degree. _ I don’t want to be in it either, _ it seemed to say to him.

“You’ve got lots of options,” Shoichi reassured, followed immediately by the undermining- “So get looking!”

Which was the final death knell for all of Jin and Yusaku’s procrastination. And, apparently, any better ideas they had- which was how they ended up here. 

In the student council office. 

In the presence of the president and the treasurer- the only two positions that actually mattered, given that no one had ever stepped up to take the vice-president position, and Spectre had simply absorbed that into his duties instead. 

“You’d like us to do _ what, _exactly?” Spectre asked, staring down at them with complete and utter disdain. Though he’d turned that exact expression on Yusaku no more than thirty-two times before, somehow, it still managed to get to a small part of him that really didn’t want to know what Spectre at his angriest was. 

Jin and Yusaku were seated in the student council room, before the desk, resolutely _ not _ making eye contact with either Ryoken seated behind it or Spectre standing at the bookshelf beside it.

“Join our baseball team,” Yusaku replied. Even to his own ears it sounded outlandish as trying to convince either of them that aliens had just landed on the back of the campus and were trying to make contact. 

Spectre, even with his arms full of books, still somehow managed to look like he was crossing his arms at them. It was the glare. Something about it took on a life of its own, full of unending scorn and promises of a fight later. In which case, they probably should have brought Takeru. 

_ Though, _ Yusaku spared a strange, out of time second to think, _ if Takeru’s this good in a fight, why is he so bad at baseball..? _

Faced with a mystery with no answer, Yusaku glanced down at the books instead, the titles on their spines all written elegantly in the swooping script of foreign languages. Though weirdly enough, Yusaku thought, they were all things he associated with foreign fairy tales. _ Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland- _Spectre set the books down on the shelves lining the room, spines placed away from him, and Yusaku was forced to return to the matter at hand.

“I’ll consider it,” Ryoken said, and everyone’s heads snapped towards him. That was an answer none of them had been expecting, and Spectre was the only one who bothered trying to hide his surprise. Though, Yusaku thought, he was doing a rather bad job of it.

“But,” Ryoken added, “you need to impress me, first.”

Yusaku narrowed his eyes. Ryoken’s challenges were never simple matters. “What counts as impressing you, now?”

“Anything, really,” Ryoken said, “though try not to break anything. Including the school rules. You’re very fond of that.”

Yusaku wanted to protest that it was never his _ idea, _ but figured that would sound too juvenile and all but prove Ryoken’s point. He also bit down his next comment about Ryoken being completely fine with breaking the rules when it was either him or Spectre that was doing it, riding on the privilege of their makeshift family members being the high-ups at the high school and university both. 

“We’ll try not to,” he said, insincerely and knowing that whatever sort of plan they came up with, it probably would have to break a rule or two if they had any hope of winning Ryoken over to their side- especially because Spectre still wanted to needle them over their club being anything but official, despite the way they only used the grounds when no one else was scheduled to practice there. 

“I’ll look forward to it,” Ryoken replied, everything in his tone and posture a challenge- that anticipatory smile the least of them- and it was then that Yusaku knew for certain that he couldn’t back down.

“What can we do to get the student council to join us?” Yusaku said, unwilling to back down from Ryoken’s challenge. A baseball game was one thing- but Ryoken had laid down the gauntlet, and Yusaku had no choice but to pick it up. 

“Give up,” Jin replied helpfully, staring up at the cracks in the ceiling that had appeared to gain some new water stains since they’d moved in at the start of the year. Dangerous. Though it probably wouldn’t collapse. Probably. Maybe. Yusaku wouldn’t bet on it, anyway. 

“Come on,” Takeru said, twirling around in his desk chair to face Jin, “we can come up with something. They can’t be _ that _ hard to impress.”

“I like that kind of attitude,” Shoichi said, grinning up at Takeru, pointing the tip of his pencil at him with relish. 

“Neither of you have had to deal with them as long as I have,” Yusaku replied, staring at them with the memory of taking far too many falls for the group flashing through his mind. The two of them made a ruthless pair, a one-two combination that utterly destroyed any force that dared stand in their way. Then add the fact they had three of the high school teachers on their side- practically their parents, at this point- and the iron wall of Den City High School was complete. 

“Yeah,” Shoichi replied, “but all big-shots are the same at heart. Didn’t you and Ryoken used to know each other when you were kids? C’mon, what happened to that childhood friendship?”

_ I met you all, _ Yusaku didn’t explain- because this and that were different matters. Instead, he just tried to figure out what he wanted to say.

“We met once,” Yusaku explained, very much not for the first time, “When we were kids. I thought we could be good friends, back then, but we didn’t meet again until middle school. And by then, he’d changed. He probably doesn’t even remember helping me.”

Not that Yusaku really believed that. Helping someone escape from their would-be kidnappers wasn’t a thing that someone seemed like they would forget, no matter if they were eight years old at the time or not. Certainly Yusaku had been six, and he’d yet to forget- though his reasons were a bit different than the hero of the day’s. 

(There was a reason Yusaku didn’t trust strangers- that it still took time to earn his trust in the way Jin and Shoichi had grown to.)

“But it’s not like you’re enemies,” Shoichi replied, leaning over the table to fix him with an encouraging smile. “So get to thinking!”

“We… won’t think of anything,” Jin said, and Yusaku just sighed as Shoichi once again reassured them that they could. Finding a new member wasn’t that simple for either of them. It was probably why he’d assigned them the task in the first place. And it wasn’t that Yusaku thought that he and Ryoken _ couldn’t _ become real friends. Plenty of people gained distance between them as the years went on. It wasn’t any stretch of the imagination to think that two children who’d met _ once _ would have failed to become lasting friends, even after they’d met again. 

It just made it hard to figure out how to approach him again, after so long, and after their relationship to each other had changed so dramatically. 

The thoughts followed Yusaku to the day’s practice. He supposed, if he really wanted to, he could challenge Ryoken to some sort of competition. They’d always been about even in terms of school, despite their different positions socially. Though a physical competition was still completely out of the question. He still wasn’t sure exactly what Ryoken and Spectre _ did, _ considering neither of them were on any sort of sports team or activity at school, but it was clear they did _ something. _ Even as a child he’d never managed to beat Ryoken at a physical game.

But his thoughts were quickly stolen away as he arrived at the field, most of the rest of the team tagging along behind- as they’d all been in Takeru and Yusaku’s room to begin with, anyway. They’d picked Ema up on the way, her work having apparently finished for the time being. Which meant, the two girls standing on the field now, chatting as they waited for the rest of the group must have been…

As they approached, it became clear that the first of the girls was Aoi. But there was someone unfamiliar beside her- a girl dressed in expensive-looking exercise clothes and hair tied up in two small pigtails. It gave her a sort of bouncy look, at odds with her otherwise posed and proper demeanor.

“Who’s this?” Ema called over to her, with a knowing tone that exposed exactly how little Ema needed an introduction. It gave her away, even without seeing the smile she was stifling beneath her gloved hand.

“This is my roommate,” Aoi said, gesturing over to the other girl with a tiny smile, “Miyu.”

“Nice to meet you,” Miyu chimed, “I’ve just transferred here! Aoi and I knew each other when we were little, but some things happened, and, well, we just managed to reconnect!”

“Just out of curiosity,” Shoichi said, not unwelcoming but certainly a little perplexed, “You just transferred here, right? You’re sure you’d rather not join a club or something? About your interests? It’s almost the end of the year, but I’m sure all the clubs would be happy to have a new member.”

“I thought about that, but…” Miyu turned back to Aoi and fixed her with a dazzling smile. “Well, it’s been a long time since Aoi and I have been able to talk! So I thought I’d join this club so I could meet her friends!”

Shoichi broke out into a grin- he probably couldn’t help himself, after hearing that sort of kind reason. “Then we’re happy to have you, Miyu. Aoi, why don’t you take her around and introduce her to everyone? I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of talking to do.”

Aoi nodded, and shuffled MIyu off towards where Takeru and Kiku were standing, the effective start of the line. And as she did, Shoichi turned towards them.

“I can’t believe _ Aoi _ brought in a new member before you two,” Shoichi said, staring over at Yusaku and Jin pointedly. Yusaku just shrugged, putting on his best face of indifference. It _ had _ been unexpected, but he wasn’t going to show it. Not when it was just easiest for him to be pleased Aoi had finally gotten over the source of her hesitations.

After introductions, the practice continued on as it usually did- everyone warming up in their positions of choice- but with one notable exception. It was usually Yusaku who insisted on playing catcher, though they’d all had a bit of experience catching Aoi and Shoichi’s pitches at one point or another. But this time, when Aoi stepped up to the mound, it was Miyu who took the catcher’s mask from Yusaku’s hand with a smile and a quiet insistence that she’d take up the position. 

And as the practice wore on, Yusaku could see exactly why she had. 

“They’re totally in-sync,” Takeru muttered, watching as Miyu shifted to catch one of Aoi’s pitches gone a bit wide without breaking a sweat- not even an inch of panic. If this was how they were after only just reconnecting, Yusaku couldn’t imagine what they’d look like once they’d practiced together a little more.

“I bet we could do that, too!” Kiku replied, jogging up to pat Takeru on the shoulder. “I always catch what you throw from first base. Well. Mostly.”

“You’ve gotta catch it all the time,” Takeru said back, rather teasingly, rather chidingly. As if they weren’t also a powerful combination already, too.

“You have to throw it well!” Kiku teased, and ran over to the water stand laughing as Takeru jokingly chased her. 

Yusaku watched them go, then shook his head and wandered over to the shade of the tree from where Jin was watching them, as he always did. It seemed Shoichi had the same idea; the two of them wandered over together as practice came to a natural break in its run. 

“So?” Shoichi asked, “What do you think of our new addition?”

Jin nodded solemnly. “Good.”

“Then you’ve gotta get on with working on that student council of yours, huh?” Shoichi asked, turning from Jin to Yusaku with that reassuring grin- the one that was sure to egg them on. Yusaku just sighed, and wished Jin hadn’t walked right into that one. If only it was that simple. 

And so the days passed, with Yusaku none the wiser to any sort of plan, but with the burning desire to prove to Ryoken that he could earn his interest every time their paths crossed in the halls. 

He’d find a way to show Ryoken. He would.

Though he was still remarkably idea-less today too, sitting down at the cafeteria table with their usual group- plus Miyu, who had taken to them with relish, even if the bulk of her attention seemed focused on Aoi most days. 

“We won’t be able to see the shooting stars,” said Kiku with a frown, scrolling through her tablet over the lunch table.

“Maybe it’ll clear up?” Aoi suggested, but just looking down at the forecast was enough to prove otherwise. They’d be lucky if it wasn’t raining the night of the meteor shower, nevermind clear enough to see any of the sky. 

Kiku just sighed and returned to picking at her rice. Though Miyu dropped her a piece of tempura subtly on the side of her plate, and Kiku almost immediately brightened right back up, impending doom forgotten. 

“All we can do is hope,” Miyu said, nodding solemnly to herself. 

Yusaku glanced over at Shoichi, sure he’d have some sort of suggestion- but he was unusually silent today. And that was right, Yusaku supposed. No matter how much power Shoichi seemed to have in terms of getting around the rules and getting his hands on things that would make plans go his way, even he wasn’t powerful enough to control the weather. 

It didn’t, of course, clear up enough by the evening. And yet in their group chat, the message came anyway- _ everyone meet on the roof! We have a surprise for you. The back door is open. _

The message was from Ema. Yusaku glanced over the library table at Aoi, who seemed like she usually had a handle on what the other was doing- but Aoi just looked up from her phone and shrugged. It seemed no clarification was going to come from her. 

Together they packed up their things, and made their way from the library- the only part of the school still open at this hour- and out through the library door, circling around to the back as not to attract attention going through the closed school. Sure enough, the back door was open- and sure enough, everyone began to gather on the roof, drawn by the call despite the disappointment of the clouds still covering the sky. And as each new person arrived, Yusaku could begin to feel their hopes. That despite all common sense that Shoichi and Ema had somehow found a way to manipulate the weather, to make the stars visible even beneath the clouds. Especially, thought Yusaku, Jin, sitting on a blanket Shoichi had no doubt brought with, looking up at the clouds with longing in his eyes. 

It was once they were all assembled that Shoichi and Ema exchanged a smile, then disappeared behind one of the rooftop heaters and returned to plop near a dozen plastic bags at everyone’s feet. Some of them were the promised snacks- and everyone rummaged through their own bags to add to the pile of them- but some of them, Yusaku could tell immediately by the boxes that stuck out of their tops- where anything but.

“Where did you manage to get these?” Kiku asked, poking through one of the bags, eyes going wide at what she found there. Shoichi and Ema just flashed her twin grins and refused to answer.

“You don’t want to know,” Aoi replied instead, lowly but just pointed enough that those gathered around the bags could hear. Kiku glanced between them all, bewildered, then slowly nodded.

“Just accept it,” Takeru said, clapping her on the shoulder and pulling her away towards the snacks before backtracking and pawing through the fireworks with a terrifying grin on his face. There was a dangerous glimmer in his eyes that even his glasses under the night sky couldn’t hide.

Yusaku felt very suddenly afraid that their prospects of setting the school on fire had just skyrocketed. Kiku caught his gaze, seemed to understand his worries even without words. She smiled at him, and then patted Takeru on the shoulder. He wasn’t sure that was exactly the reassurance he needed as Shoichi came over to them bearing sparklers and a lighter of his own, but it was something, at the very least.

He and Jin sat side by side on one of the blankets, holding sparklers off the edge of it and watching as they peacefully burnt down into nothing but sticks and ash- Yusaku ready to seize it from Jin’s hand if he happened to fall asleep, making sure to be the one to light them, too. It was why he didn’t notice when from the sky there suddenly came a roaring bang, an unexpected sound that made Yusaku start and stare towards the sky.

“Where did you get _ those?” _ Takeru asked, watching as the underside of the cloudy sky was lit up in blues and reds and yellows, trailing spirals of gold in their wake as they fell down towards the group, watching mesmerized by the spectacle. 

Ema just laughed and said, in the trailing wake of an explosion- “That’s still a secret to you!”

And up went the next wave, lit by Shoichi’s hand and blooming across the dismal sky, met with laughter and cheers from down below. Surely, Yusaku thought, all the school had to be watching. And surely they’d get in trouble for this if they were found out. But in the moment, he couldn’t quite bring himself to care.

It wasn’t better than a meteor shower, exactly. It wasn’t worse, either. It was just different. Certainly not the original plan, but an experience all its own. A memory he’d never forget. A time he’d treasure, even if one day he lost it all again. He’d kind of like for it to go on forever. 

But just as Yusaku thought it- in the silence between a round of fireworks, Ema and Shoichi rifling through their bags for more- 

_ Bang. _

That was the metal door to the rooftop- the one that was locked, that wasn’t supposed to be opened by anyone save staff. Or the only other person in the school who was allowed to carry the key. Which meant...

“You’ve impressed me,” Ryoken said, and Yusaku leapt to his feet to face him. He hadn’t anticipated Ryoken’s arrival- though in retrospect, he certainly should have. Overhead, one of the fireworks burst in a sizzling crackle, painting the sky in pink and gold.

Around the blankets, the rest of the group did more or less the same, save Jin who couldn’t be bothered, entranced by the fireworks, and Shoichi and Ema, who simply exchanged glances and lifted eyebrows.

“So you’ll join our team?” Yusaku asked, hoping that he could divert them long enough to make them forget about what they were clearly about to say. 

“And we’re not in trouble?” Kiku asked, poking her head out from where she’d ducked behind Aoi in a poor attempt to make herself invisible in the presence of a looming threat.

“No. You’re still in trouble for this, Fujiki.”

“Why me?” Yusaku asked, gesturing towards Takeru, who had a firework and a lighter in his hand at that very moment.

“Don’t sell me out,” he protested, but neither Ryoken nor Spectre paid him any mind. No, their gazes were fixed firmly on Yusaku, intent on making him take the fall for both a plan and an action that wasn’t even his. 

“But we will,” began Ryoken, much to the abject horror of Spectre beside him, “join your baseball team.”

“Alright!’ Takeru shouted, waving the lighter above his head, flames flickering dangerously close to his hair before Kiku managed to pry it from him and set it down atop the roof. “That’s a full team! We did it!”

“Though we still have no substitutions when we’re playing the field,” Yusaku felt the need to remind everyone- they’d all have to play the full nine innings. Having a full team to do it with wasn’t any less of a workload.

“Oh,” Ema replied, full of her usual sly confidence, “that won’t be a problem.”

Yusaku wasn’t so sure about that. But given that the two about to join them at least had stamina, then perhaps they wouldn’t be that bad off. Maybe, thought Yusaku. Just maybe.

“Aoi is too good at this game,” Takeru said, pushing himself up from the ground and brushing the dirt rather unsuccessfully from his white pants, the evidence of his attempt at sliding into third base.

“No,” Kiku said with a smile, standing on the plate with ball in hand, “you’re just weirdly bad at this, Takeru.”

Takeru grimaced. “Hey, come on! Where did all your reassurances go? You’ve been hanging out with Aoi too long.”

Kiku just laughed and threw the ball back to Shoichi at the pitcher’s mound. Yusaku swore he heard some sort of mutter about _ depth perception _ and its importance in a game like this flutter back to the makeshift bench where he’d been casually observing with Spectre, of all people.

“That Zaizen Aoi _ is _ rather standout,” Spectre said in a low, contemplative tone that had Yusaku suddenly afraid for whatever would follow. The two of them hadn’t seemed to speak since Aoi had quit the student council back in middle school. The entire student population had assumed they’d had some sort of falling out; neither of them had ever said a word to correct that assumption. They way they refused to speak only seemed to confirm it in the minds of most.

“Okay,” Shoichi called, “Takeru’s out. Who’s up next to bat?”

No one raised their hands, staring out at the assembled members with blank gazes. In the silence, Yusaku sighed and headed over towards the plate. It wasn’t a particularly successful round at bat, as far as they went- he managed to get a hit, but it was right into the hands of Ema in the outfield, who tossed it back to Aoi with what Yusaku was sure was a teasing wink, even if he could hardly see her with the distance. 

The rest of the practice was hardly better- for reasons Yusaku couldn’t quite pinpoint, he knew he wasn’t playing his best. Maybe, he thought, it had something to do with the way time seemed to be flying by. Their match would be soon- which was only a better reason to go and give it his all. 

From there, things seemed to go a bit better for him, and by the end of practice, as Yusaku wound down his shoulders and started looking forward to the next one, he was confident again in how he played. For a game he’d initially had no interest in, anyway. 

“Good job,” Miyu said, handing him a glass of water as she passed, distributing them as normal at the end of practice, “I think you might have gotten the most hits today!”

“Actually,” Ryoken said, affecting a casual tone, “I outscored you by one point.”

“You kept count?” Yusaku asked, lifting an eyebrow at him in blatant disbelief. Ryoken hadn’t been at bat nearly as often as Yusaku had- which meant his almost every swing must have been a base hit at worst. And Yusaku knew from experience- Ryoken was good, but he couldn’t be _ that _ good. Yusaku would catch him in the lie. But just as he thought that-

“No. Jin did,” Ryoken replied, punctuating his statement with a wave towards Jin sitting under the shade of the tree. In response, Jin lifted an oversized sketchbook from his lap that he definitely hadn’t possessed before and flipped it around for them to see. At this distance, Yusaku could just make out his and Ryoken’s names scribbled across the top, tally marks forming characters neatly beneath them in bold black marker. And sure enough- next to Ryoken’s name was one extra mark.

Yusaku turned back to Ryoken and glared up at him. He was met only with a challenging grin. He glared harder. Ryoken’s smugness was infuriatingly bright.

“I’m not losing to you,” Yusaku said, taking up the challenge with fervor.

“You already did,” Ryoken replied, satisfied as a hunter who’d just made the perfect shot, lined up and taken before his prey so much as realized the danger. Yusaku wasn’t going to let this stand- but he couldn’t refute Ryoken, either. Instead he just steamed, trying to play it off coolly as he could. 

“You won’t next time.”

Ryoken laughed at him. “We’ll see about that.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Did you really think it would be anything else?”

“I need a rival,” Takeru said, doubtless louder than he thought he did as he made his way over towards them. 

“You need to work on improving yourself before you can even think about a rival,” Kiku replied, just as loud as she’d intended. Takeru protested, lunging at her with false aggression, and Kiku laughed as she dodged away, running off to stand behind a bewildered Aoi, torn away from her stare down with Spectre. 

Approaching from the infield, Ema sighed. “Things have certainly gotten lively around here, haven’t they?”

“Come on,” Shoichi replied, pulling her along into the makeshift circle that they’d begun to form, “You know you like things better this way.”

Ema hummed, unwilling to confirm or deny it, which Yusaku wasn’t sure, but he thought might have just been her roundabout way of agreeing. They weren’t close enough to tell, but that’s just the impression he got. Anyone who spent that much time around Shoichi and his shenanigans couldn’t possibly be opposed to a bit of lively nonsense.

“Which reminds me,” Aoi said, curling back around with Miyu to make all members present, “Ema and I decided on a day for the pancake party. It’ll be Satuday of the week before the game. The student council has… _ graciously _ allowed us to use the cafeteria, so we’ll bring the griddles there. If everyone could chip in and bring their own drink, that would be helpful, too. Ema and I will handle the ingredients for the pancakes, though.”

“And I’ll be bringing some other snacks, just for something that’s not sweet,” Miyu chimed in, followed by a murmured chorus of agreement. Seems like it would end up like one of their usual snack parties, Yusaku thought, but with the added bonus of more pancakes than they’d know what to do with.

“Shouldn’t we be saving the pancake party for _ after _the game?” Spectre asked, to which the group as a collective shrugged. That had never been the way they’d done things, and they all saw no reason to start now. A celebration could be a celebration at any time- if another occasion arose, then that just meant another day to have a party. It was busy, and some days more trouble than it was worth, but Yusaku had grown used to it, over the years. And privately, he thought, it was a nice way to live.

“No,” said Ryoken, a bit contemplatively, “This seems like a nice idea. A pre-party, to keep our spirits up before our biggest trial yet… Am I right?”

“Hit the nail on the head,” replied Ema, “so let’s all look forward to it with all we’ve got, okay?”

A cheer went up from the group- some more enthusiastic than others. But even so, thought Yusaku- they’d certainly have no problem with that. The hardest part of it, really, would just end up being the _ waiting. _

Though, Yusaku reflected, it really didn’t go as slowly as he thought it would. He’d always thought that time was something that tricked by, rather than flowed- when he was always looking out for himself, looking out for Jin, trying to make his way through a world that he often couldn’t connect with- it had always seemed so dreadfully slow. But with all the time he’d spent together with these friends, both old and new, the days seemed to fly with fervor they’d never possessed before. Or even perhaps before that- perhaps the days had started to speed up from the moment he’d met Jin and Shoichi, and the increase had been so gradual, he hadn’t noticed it until it was completely different from its original tempo. 

But either way, Yusaku thought, setting down a selection of jams and honey and nuts and all the toppings anyone could possibly think of around the table, the last bit of preparation before the _ eating _ phase of the party could begin, somehow, it was here- and it was hard not to get swept up in the atmosphere of it.

Yusaku glanced around the table. Ryoken seemed to be in deep conversation with Aoi and Miyu over something, which was an unusual choice, but not one that Yusaku had any objections to. Meanwhile Kiku seemed to be showing Jin how to make pancake art- probably to less than desirable results, though if he had to guess, the two of them were drawing stars. Shoichi and Ema, meanwhile, seemed to be cheering them on as Takeru balanced a stack of cups in his hands and arms, bringing around drink refills to everyone by hand instead of just bringing around the juice cartons and soda cans. But that still left them one short. 

Yusaku glanced around the cafeteria, wondering if Spectre had gone off towards the garbage cans, or the bathrooms- but there was no one in sight. Yusaku frowned. It seemed no one else had yet noticed his absence. And with no eyes on him, either, Yusaku slowly crept away from his seat and towards the doors that led out into the courtyard, certain of where he’d find Spectre.

He hadn’t met Spectre as a child- apparently, Ryoken had met Spectre a little bit after his misadventure in near-kidnappings with Yusaku- but it was hard not to have learned a few things over the years, even with his distance. Despite his close friendship with Ryoken, one of the most popular kids in the school, he himself seemed to be a bit of a loner, clinging only to his inner circle (aka, Ryoken, and only Ryoken) and taking little care to branch out besides what was required of him in his duties as treasurer. 

But he stories flew along with the rumors, and it was how Yusaku knew exactly the place Spectre might have disappeared to. While he wasn’t the _ outdoorsy _ type by any stretch of the imagination, there was one specific thing he’d always had an interest in- trees. And on this campus, where he’d lived for the bulk of his life, there was one in particular he’d always clung to. It wasn’t far. In fact, it was just outside of the cafeteria, in the courtyard where a few students could always be found eating lunch during the day- regardless of whether it was actually their lunchtime or not.

And sure enough, as Yusaku rounded the corner of the ancient tree- there was Spectre, sitting amongst its roots. His arrival wasn’t stealthy enough not to be noticed; Spectre looked up at him with a standoffish look. “Is there a reason you’re here?”

Yusaku crouched down beside him, forcing Spectre to shuffle over a bit to make room for him in this cradle of roots.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Spectre scoffed, but then added, in a tone much softer than the initial rejection- “My apologies. Such raucous social gatherings have never been to my taste.”

Yusaku lifted an eyebrow at him. Not because it was untrue- but because in Spectre’s perpetual game of overstatements and bold words, it was rare to hear him try and understate something so blatantly. “You mean you’re not good with big groups of people.”

Yusaku expected the comment to pick a fight- not that it had been his intention in saying it, exactly- but to his surprise, Spectre gave a tiny, bitter laugh.

“You may be right.”

Spectre followed along at Ryoken’s side- or perhaps it was more accurate to say that he’d been clinging to Ryoken, ever since they were children attending the elementary school associated with this school. Always watching, always figuring out exactly what about others he could use to his advantage. Wise beyond his years, in some ways- bitterly behind in others. Just because he understood people didn’t mean he was any good at connecting with them. 

“Only because I understand.”

He said it in an attempt to bridge the gap, but Spectre only huffed at him. He replied, extraordinarily dry, “Yes. I suppose you _ are _ the type of person who would understand something like this.”

Yusaku wasn’t exactly sure if that was Spectre reaching out to take the olive branch or not, but at least it wasn’t flat rejection. “So it’s fine if you go and talk to them all one on one, you know. You’re not any weirder than any of us.”

Spectre lifted an eyebrow at him, and Yusaku felt a momentary flush of satisfaction that he’d managed to stump Spectre as to whether he’d just been insulted or not. Not, of course, that Yusaku had meant it at one. But playing Spectre at his own game was something Yusaku could do with ease. If they were finally getting the chance to talk properly, then Yusaku couldn’t help but want to have a little fun with it.

“I do wonder about that,” said Spectre, casting him a pointed, sidelong glance. Yusaku thought it was a weak defense- if anyone in their group of friends was stranger than Spectre, then it certainly wasn’t him. “We are two of a kind, are we not?”

“A bold extrapolation,” Yusaku returned, but didn’t push it. He supposed that if it was loneliness- if it was clinging to the people he’d managed to find- then Yusaku understood that, too. And it lead him to a thought he’d been thinking for a while, finally surfacing around the boy himself-

Spectre might not have been that bad. 

“Come on,” he said, pushing himself back to his feet and standing in the shelter of the tree, the leaves rustling around them as the heralds of summer on the wind. “We’ve both been missing for a while already.”

Spectre scoffed, but accepted the hand Yusaku stretched down to him all the same. “Well. At least it was someone as equally incompetent at human connection who came to retrieve me.”

Never mind, Yusaku thought. Spectre was absolutely insufferable. 

“Let’s go back inside?” asked Yusaku with a tilt of his head to the cafeteria, the open window from which the distant strains of laughter still flowed. It was likely that no one had noticed their absence yet- or at least, Yusaku hoped no one had noticed. The last thing he wanted was for everyone to create some sort of band out searching for them, interrupting the festivities still in full swing. 

But, unfortunately, the second they stepped back inside-

“There they are!” Miyu said brightly upon their arrival, causing everyone’s heads to turn and face them. Everyone had sat back down at the table, stacks of pancakes firmly before them and cups in hand. Two were placed before the empty spots that were for them, too.

“Finally,” said Shoichi with no bite. “C’mon! We’re ready to get the pancake party started.”

Yusaku cast a sidelong glance at Spectre, who returned it with equal sort of amusement- his equivalent of an eye roll, if Yusaku had ever seen one. They made their way back to their seats, and took in what awaited them. The plastic cups at their seats were filled with what Yusaku could only assume was sparkling juice, given its color- because mischievous or not, neither Shoichi nor Ema were the types to serve high schoolers alcohol. 

“To our match!” Shoichi said, holding his glass of juice high in the air, and around the table everyone else picked up theirs and returned the chorus. Finally, nine players. Some friends longer than others, some still feeling out tentative bonds- but a group of them all the same. It might have been unlikely- an impossibility, to some- but surrounded by their team, misfits as they might have been- Yusaku truly began to believe that they might just have a shot. 

It was, of course, not the longest-lived of hopes. 

Like it or not, they were playing against college students who’d actually had more experience with the game then just a few occasional practices over the course of a handful of months. When they moved, it was with a trained sort of purpose. It was no wonder they’d fallen behind so badly. Over the course of the first eight innings, they’d managed to even things up a little- to keep the lead from increasing any further, at least- but they were still four runs behind. Bases loaded, bottom of the ninth. Two outs, down by three. They’d have one chance at this. 

Hopes or not- to do this, they’d need a miracle.

“Who’s up next to bat?” Yusaku asked on third base, he and Shoichi both glancing towards the bench- where Takeru was stepping up to the plate. Yusaku let out a long breath. It wasn’t that this was impossible- not even in the slightest. Takeru was a fighter if any of them had ever seen one, and when he hit the ball, it wasn’t as if his aim was _ bad. _ It was just that bad depth perception was bad depth perception, no matter what the stakes were. 

On the mound, the pitcher wound up for his first, sent it flying towards Takeru without any sort of tricks- if there was going to be a shot, Yusaku thought, readying himself to run, then this was going to be it.

But Takeru didn’t swing- whether he hadn’t been ready or he’d just simply misjudged, a pitch over the dead center of the plate was still nothing but bad news. 

_ Strike one. _

A cheer went up from the bench, pure encouragement as they shouted Takeru’s name. The boy himself didn’t seem phased by his miss- just rolled back his shoulders, adjusted his stance, and faced the pitcher again.

The pitch came fast as lightning, a fastball- Takeru swang at this one, but his timing was just a split second off- by the time his bat had crossed the plate, the ball was already in the catcher’s hand.

_ Strike two. _

Still Takeru didn’t seem phased. At Yusaku’s side, Shoichi joined in his shouts of encouragement. “All or nothing, Takeru!”

And with that final call, the final pitch came roaring down the infield, straight down towards Takeru. He faced it down with determination, rotating his shoulders strongly as the ball came close- and as it seemed all the world slowed, as Yusaku forced himself not to hold his breath- the crack of the ball against bat rang out over the diamond, strong and clear.

“Come on!” Shoichi yelled beside him, and Yusaku burst into a sprint. This had never been his strong suit- except, maybe, in his dreams- but perhaps it was the practice, or the adrenaline, or just a little reserve of power he didn’t know he had- but it was almost as if he flew down the third base line, crossing over home as a cheer rang out from the crowd. Yusaku stumbled to a stop, craned his head to watch- and just saw as the ball cut a wide arc towards the school building and disappeared, far over the fence that marked the edge of the field and into the courtyard beyond.

_ Home run. _

It wasn’t a large crowd that had gathered, not really- just the three teachers who were basically Ryoken and Spectre’s family and a few students that had nothing better to do with their time than watch the game they’d stumbled across- but their cheers from it felt like a roar in Yusaku’s ears, louder even than the rush of his pounding heart. 

That was it. Aoi came rushing down the bases next, Ryoken following her not a moment later, the two of them almost tumbling into Yusaku as they turned to confirm, to watch Takeru as he sprinted around the diamond and running to them with a _ whoop _ of pure excitement as he wound his arms around them all, dragging them into a rough hug.

Ema leapt the barrier between the bench, and it was as if the floodgates had burst open- everyone followed in a wild stream, curling around in a circle of cheers and shouts and even simple smiles that seemed to be contagious. There was no longer a trace of hesitation left. Just the excitement of their victory, and the thought that they might have just caught a miracle.

“We did it!” someone shouted, though it didn’t matter who- no one would remember anyway, too caught up in the moment to bother separating one teammate from the others. Yusaku felt arms land over his shoulders, the group hug pressing him towards the very middle- surrounded by the friends he’d made. 

He didn’t know how long that continued, exuberance overtaking them- but he did know it was Shoichi that eventually broke them up with a single suggestion, loud and clear above their chatter. 

“Come on,” Shoichi said, waving a camera up above their heads, “let’s take a picture.”

And it was as if it was the greatest suggestion they’d ever heard. They rushed over to the mound- all ten of them at once, hands linked to hands as they shuffled about, trying to squeeze in enough that they’d all fit in the frame. 

“Okay,” said Shoichi, just as they’d settled down- “Say cheese!”

“Wait.”

It was Jin that spoke, his voice ringing out unusually strong out over the field. It drew everyone’s attention to him, a silence settling over them and smiles dropping a fraction of their glee. They waited for him to go on. And when he spoke, it was without consciousness of all those watching him. “You need to be in the picture, too. Because you were the one who suggested we play.”

“That’s right!” Kiku chimed in, “It _ was _ your idea. So you have to be in the picture!”

Shoichi seemed a bit flattered at their insistence, at the chorus of agreement that came from everyone else following their lead, but it wasn’t without a hint of trouble. “Well, that’s fine, but… then who’s going to take the picture?”

And abruptly, the clamor changed, pivoted on an axis as to who got the right to sit out and take the picture rather than be in it. Until Ryoken pointed out what everyone was already thinking- “You really can’t leave anyone out, can you?”

But that still left them with a dilemma- and one with no real answer, given that their crowd had already dispersed in the time they’d been celebrating. Though just as it seemed that one of them would have to sit out-

“I’ll take it,” Go said, and held out his hand for the camera. 

“Go! You did show up to watch!” Takeru said, practically tripping over himself to hand the camera over. Apparently that home run had used up all his coordination for the day. At this point, with this result, Yusaku certainly wasn’t going to protest.

Go glanced away, and Yusaku thought that he might just have been embarrassed. “Yeah. I did.”

Takeru grinned up at him with the force of the sun and said, simply- “Thanks.”

And with that, they got back into position- Shoichi and Ema surrounding Jin in the back, Aoi and Miyu on one side and Ryoken and Spectre on the other, the latter on each side curling down towards the front- followed by Takeru and Kiku on either side of Yusaku, kneeling straight down in the center. How it had ended up this way, Yusaku didn’t know- he always tried his best to be on the ends and edges of pictures like these. 

_ Three! _

But then again, thought Yusaku, realizing he really didn’t mind as he stared up at Go, holding the camera steady and counting down to them he’d never been in a photo with people that mattered as much as this.

_ Two! _

And it was strange- it really, truly was- but Yusaku couldn’t quite help the feeling that washed over him, the sound that was pulled from him more genuine than anything had in ages-

_ One! _

On the tail end of laughter, as the camera flashed- Yusaku couldn’t help but smile.


End file.
